My work addresses a range of issues including the capitalist nature of the globalised industrial working environment, the loss of skills and jobs from our traditional manufacturing base and the temporary nature of our industrial scene. In the last few years large numbers of old manufacturing machines have been lost to the scrapyard of history and the few that remain linger in museums as empty, silent husks, polished and de-texturised for the tourists gaze. Although I have never worked in an industrial setting I can still relate to the loss of a workforce, its skills and camaraderie and the textures and shapes of an industrial environment. The work is designed to trigger nostalgia and memories of a past era of industrial skill. The models act as empty signifiers and metaphors for the economic destruction of industry. They are concerned with the fragile nature of the material as a metaphor for the passing of time, reminding the viewer of the ephemeral and finite nature of things.

Roy Isaacs BA (hons) fine art (1st) John Moores University.              MA fine art Liverpool University.